Reddit's inventory dropped 36% complete the former week following Reddit's CEO, Steve Huffman, confirmed Google Search traffic has been declining for the famous social media site. Of course, all SEO on this earth knew this would happen eventually, and it did.
Via CNBC, "Reddit CEO Steve Huffman told CNBC in an discussion that the company’s shrinking search-referral traffic from Google went “down meaningfully in this quarter” because of the “shift to AI manner and AI overviews.” The traffic decrease played a big function in Reddit’s planned efforts to necessitate group to rotate into logged-in users." “I think basically that association between Google and the remainder of the net is evolving, and so for us, this method a continued concentration on our center users that arrive to Reddit directly,” Huffman said. Previous Google algorithm changes would “kind of arrive and go,” Huffman said, but the company’s AI efforts portray “a essential change in how the Google merchandise works, from being a traffic controller to whatever’s going on now.”
Here is a screenshot of the Reddit inventory chart:
It does not appearance as drastic as the Semrush diagram showing the traffic Google sends Reddit and the keywords Reddit ranks for - but there are additional ways to piece and cubes these Semrush charts. You can interrupt them out by section, by language, region, etc - so this is a simplified view:
Glenn Gabe noted on X, "I published a three-part sequence on Reddit's AI translations documenting the increase and autumn of that content. Those translations (tens of millions of urls throughout many countries) took a big hit alongside the May 2026 center update and June spam update. Now Reddit is explaining additional concerning that drop."
Google lately stated Reddit gets no particular preference in Google Search, following years and years of Reddit getting particular placement in Google Search. But equal in February 2025, Reddit has been complaning concerning Google not giving them adequate traffic. Yes, Google has a content agreement alongside Reddit but who knows if that volition be renewed. But was it the Reddit AI-translated pages that hit them?
I mean, Reddit's CEO being so assured in saying anybody using Google at this item volition end up on Reddit at several point made us all laugh. I stated rear then, "I am not an funding expert, but it seems akin a hazardous inventory to me... I mean, we've seen Google position Yahoo Answers, Wikipedia, and so many another sites incredibly fine complete the years and one day, Google can autumn them and poof, that is a huge chunk of traffic that is gone."
Forum conversation at X.
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